Tuition repeal a key feature in immigration debate Capitol Spotlight for weeklies for week of March 11, 2007 By Jim Campbell OPA Capitol News Bureau The legislature swung the gate open to higher education for low-income illegal immigrants four years ago and a House provision that would slam it shut could become a major issue in ultimate passage of an immigration reform bill this year. Repeal of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is one of the tools Rep. Randy Terrill, R- Oklahoma City, insists on as part of his Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007. In-state tuition denial is a provision that Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, who is handling the issue in the Senate, has said he does not want. Preservation of the tuition authority was proposed in amendments easily defeated before the House sent the omnibus bill to the Senate by a vote of 88-9 after 3 and a half hours of questions and debate by members. Terrill said it makes no sense to educate immigrants who are barred by law from ever becoming citizens if they entered the country illegally. "If we educate you (an illegal immigrant) to the level of a Ph.D. rocket scientist you are legally unemployable," Terrill said. Terrill and other advocates also maintained the tuition break discriminates against U.S. citizens who might come to Oklahoma colleges from Kansas or Texas. The 2003 law allows illegal immigrants in-state tuition if they graduate from a state high school after two years in attendance and are working toward citizenship. Rep. Al Lindley, D-Oklahoma City, read names of 31 Republicans who had voted for it. In a bid to use up time allotted to actual advocates, many Democrats offered to debate for the bill. Terrill, however, won approval to extend the debate to two hours and the ultimate vote found many Democrats voting yes and a few Republicans opposed. House Speaker Lance Cargill issued a statement saying illegal immigration "is costing us hundreds of millions of dollars a year." HHH The room was packed and emotions high as the House Judiciary and Public Safety Committee advanced a slate of bills making it tougher to get an abortion in Oklahoma. "Pro-life taxpayers should not be forced to be complicit in taking a child's life," said Tony Lauinger, chairman of Oklahomans for Life while testifying for a bill ensuring neither insurance companies nor state funds go toward abortions. Other bills would require doctors performing the procedure to have privileges to do any follow up care at a hospital within 30 miles and make it tougher for doctors to perform an abortion without parental consent. Judy Calhoun, a registered nurse from Norman, urged the panel to consider what happens "in the real world" where a dying woman, perhaps a victim of rape or abuse, may come to a hospital for treatment that might involve aborting a fetus. "Some of you who have never been to college should not tell the doctor how to do his job," she said. The legislature's only medical doctor, Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, said later, "They should leave the practice of medicine up to the physicians." It's uncertain whether all the measures advance as easily in the Senate, where several abortion bills have died this year without a hearing. Although a number of Democrats raised questions about the bills in the House committee, most voted for them. The Judiciary Committee also approved three bills calling for lawsuit reform, including a measure by Cox that would limit damages a plaintiff may win by suing a doctor. Cox told the panel a patient in Grove came to him wanting "her tubes tied" to prevent another pregnancy. He referred her to another physician who botched the job, with the result that "she sued me" as well as the doctor who harmed her and the hospital. A doorstop-size bill nearly 200 pages long by Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa, has become the Legislature's comprehensive lawsuit reform vehicle. Identical language in the Senate by Sen. Co-President Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, died without a hearing. HHH The House and Senate passed to each other bills considering whether animal waste can be a health hazard. The House voted 39-39 for a bill by Rep. Jerry Ellis, D-Valliant, that would restrict the power of the attorney general and secretary of the environment in suing animal producers over waste products. Following an agreement with Attorney General Drew Edmondson, the Senate earlier approved a bill by Rep. Ron Justice, R-Chickasha, saying manure is not a hazardous substance as defined in state law but without denying the state's authority for regulation. In the House, Ellis said, 'We continue to live under a cloud of litigation." Rep. James Covey, D-Custer City, who voted against Ellis' bill, said it would give a producer 18 years to fix a pollution problem. HHH "It's not TABOR and it's not TABOR LIGHT," said Rep. Ken Miller, R-Edmond, in winning committee approval for his bill restricting state spending to 6 percent plus inflation, an effective 9.5 percent. The current ceiling is 12 percent plus inflation, a figure seldom topped. "If we say we're fiscal conservatives and afraid of a 9.5 percent cap, I don't believe we are," he said. An organization that fought the TABOR measure circulated last year had alerted opponents to oppose Miller's measure.